


Shadows

by actualkoschei



Series: BadThingsHappenBingo [1]
Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, If you have your slash goggles on, Light Canon-Typical Violence, Surprise Mystery Villain, Very Lightly Implied Relationships, Villainous Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-26 21:56:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15010268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualkoschei/pseuds/actualkoschei
Summary: For the "Villainous Rescue" square on my BadThingsHappenBingo card.





	Shadows

The mission had gone sideways almost from the very start. There  _had_ been a plan, Roy was almost sure of that much. He could no longer be sure what it had been, though. When he looked around, over his shoulder, he was alone. In the semi-ruin of an abandoned building in Hong Kong, high enough up for there to be wisps of fog gathering around him where he stood on the top floor. He flicked on his communicator, trying to call out for his teammates, his voice more uncertain than he had wanted it to be. "Jay – uh, Red Hood? Starfire?" No answer, nothing but the loud, mocking hiss of static. Thinking for a moment it might be his earpiece that was broken, he yanked it out of his ear and shook it, slapped it against his thigh, and then put it back in. 

That helped nothing, and the distraction turned out to be one he could ill afford. He didn't see who shot him. But he felt it, the sharp sting of a dart tearing through the leather of his costume and into the skin just below his collarbone, and then a black fog enveloping him. His last thought was  _darts? That's hardly Clock King's style._ He knew he was falling backwards, and then he knew nothing more. 

He came to tied to a wall. Instinctively, he threw himself forward. The cuffs holding him had no give, and pain jolted through his wrists. He hissed, bit his lip so hard he tasted iron, and pretended that there were not tears in his eyes. His mouth was dry and foul-tasting, his arms ached as though they had been bent up above his head and cuffed there for hours, and his head was pounding, obviously, he assumed, a side-effect of whatever the dart was laced with. His mask, he noted with horror, was missing, leaving his face, and as such his identity, bare. 

He raised his head with aching stiffness. "Hello?" There was no answer. The room he was in looked like it might be underground, bare concrete all over save for a heavily locked metal door on the far wall, no windows, and only a single strip of flickering fluorescent lighting. A dark patch of damp in one corner of the ceiling hinted that they might be near water, but that was it. Shame. Roy had been hoping for a gaudy villain's lair, one that would provide a clue to who had taken him. He called out again. "Hello! Is anyone there? Who are you?"

The door creaked open. Roy's head had fallen forward to his chest again, still weak from the drug, so he saw the entrant feet-first. Incongruous feet, soft leather boots with a slight heel and dark stockings, too nice for this. Any moisture that might have been left in Roy's mouth evaporated as a sickening idea of who it might be that had captured him entered his brain. He raised his eyes to her face – that pretty, sweet face, pouty red lips, soft angles, framed by shining black hair – and his stomach fell as he saw that he was right. "Hello, Talia."

She smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. "Is that all? No 'thank you'? And after I went to all the trouble of rescuing you from the Clock King too?"

" _Rescuing_ me? Is that what this is?"

"Of course! I'm sorry about the dart, a necessity, you know, it would have been very hard to rescue you if you insisted on fighting me the whole time."

"What do you want, Talia?" He demanded.

"I want to make you an offer. The League has had our eye on you for a while, Roy Harper."

"I do  _not_  like the sound of that."

"You mustn't worry. We want you to join us."   


" _What?"_

"We could use your skills. And after you left Green Arrow, it seemed you were... unattached. Cheshire informed us we should look into your record, consider you as an agent."

"No. See, you're confused. I'm  _not_ unattached, I have a team!"

"Ah yes. Those two Clock King seemed to have gotten to. I was meaning to ask you, was that Jason Todd under that mask? He doesn't look as good as I remember him."

"Yes, it was him, and... and that's  _exactly the point!_ You think I'd work for you after the shit you did to my boy? You're crazier than they say!" Roy was straining forward in his cuffs again, hot with anger.

Cool disappointment, the look of a teacher whose student has handed in a failing essay once more, settled on Talia's face. "Such a shame. Well, perhaps some time down here will make you reconsider..." 


End file.
